The Las Vegas Raiders lost 32-13 to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday afternoon, falling to 2-4 on the season.
Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, win or lose, is always one of the most spirited and animated players on the field. A raw display of Crosby’s emotion occurred when television cameras caught him pushing Raiders assistant coach Mike Caldwell.
When Crosby was asked about pushing Caldwell, he downplayed the incident.
“We do that all the time. People look at, ‘Oh, they’re losing, Maxx pushes him.’ That’s how we play football. We’re grown men, we’re alpha males, we don’t treat each other the same,” Crosby said. “He was hyping me up; I was hyping him up.”
Crosby went on to say that he loves Caldwell and believes the narrative about the push is being made up.
“I love him, there’s literally zero, it’s completely made up out of dust,” Crosby said. “The camera made it look bad, it looked like I was throwing him out of the club but that’s not what happened at all.”
Crosby went on social media and called the shove a “love push” and told critics to “stop reaching.”
While Crosby may be correct that people are reaching, it doesn’t seem to be a reach that Caldwell seemed surprised initially by Crosby’s “love push.”
Regardless of Crosby’s intent, the shove won’t be a big deal moving forward. He’s the Raiders’ best player and being a bit wild is what makes him one of the best pass-rushers in the NFL. The most important issue for the Raiders isn’t Crosby’s shove, it’s their 2-4 record and where they go from here.
“It sucks for the fans. I want them to see the best version of us and they haven’t been able to do that,” Crosby said. “Unfortunately we lost, but we gotta respond. It’s literally the only thing we can do.”
Next up for the Raiders is a road matchup versus the 1-4 Los Angeles Rams.
